Just know the material and formulas RST provides

rstharold, November 12, 2019, CJO Offered, Delta Ride Reports, Delta Ride Reports, 0

Which Airline did you interview with?	Delta Air Lines
How many days between invite, interview, and listed availability?	5 weeks from invite to interview; listed availability was “2 weeks’ notice”.
Did you include volunteer work in your application?	Yes
Did you receive a job offer?	Yes
If you did not receive the CJO why do you think you weren’t chosen to continue in the process?	N/A
What is your experience?	135,91
Total Flight Time	5,000-8,000
Total Turbine PIC Time	TPIC 121 hours 0 TPIC Military hours 0 TPIC 91/135 1000-2000
General Overview of Experience	A little Part 135 piston time, mostly Part 91 jet.
How long did you have your application in before you received an invite?	12 months +
Did you attend a job fair?	Yes
Did you do anything special that triggered the interview invitation?	I attended the Delta Pilot Career Expo on 10-21-2017. Received invite to interview on 9-26-19.
How many internal recs did you have?	1-2
How long was it from the time of your invite to the actual interview?	6 weeks
Did you have any issues with logbooks, application or paperwork?	No issues with logbooks. A few years ago I put all of my time into a spreadsheet and used this to audit my paper logs and input a correction factor to account for all the mistakes over the years; this allowed my logbook and application numbers to match within just a few hours (airline apps doesn’t take tenths, so they didn’t match exactly). I tabbed my logs, marking all practical tests, endorsements including 61.58 jet recurrent training, first part 135 flight, & first flight in each jet I’ve flown. I gave them these original, tabbed, paper logs along with a couple summery sheets from LogTen Pro- I did NOT print out my entire electronic log; they specified to bring originals and “flight time summaries if available”. I was told during the panel interview, “your logbooks were exactly what we were looking for.”
Technical Test Questions	As others have stated, there were very few math questions- just know the material and formulas RST provides. I started to overthink a question dealing with Ram Air Temperature. It was worded similar to this: “You are at 13,000′ and 320 KIAS. You are told to slow to 250 KIAS and then descend to 5,000′. What happens to RAT?” The answers were more detailed than those given in the similar RST question, & the correct answer appeared to be “RAT will decrease, then increase as you descend.”
What was the hardest technical question or content you experienced during the job knowledge test?	I didn’t have any questions that I would have considered “hard” after going through all the RST prep material. After speaking with other interviewees, it appeared that I may have gotten a slightly less difficult version of the test.
HR Questions	The panel interview started with an explanation of the process: “We’ll go over some questions we have about you from your application, let you tell us a little about yourself, then go into some questions about how you’ve handled situations in the past, and then ask how you’d handle some questions as a Delta employee.” We spend a lot of time talking about my application and personal history. Then “tell us about yourself in about 3 min. or less”. I’ve been a Part 91 corporate pilot and they pushed for a while about “if you really wanted to be here at Delta, wanted to be an airline pilot, I don’t understand why you didn’t already go to work at a regional…” I think they really did understand, they just wanted to see if they could fluster me. “How did your college experience OTHER THAN classes directly related to flying (ground schools, etc.) prepare you for your career?” “How will you handle commuting?” Note: they never once said the words, “tell me about a time”. This was the closest they came, and the only TMAAT style question: “You’re corporate, who do you fly?” which led into “Has the CEO ever been mad at you/how did you handle it?” I took that as “TMAAT a passenger wasn’t happy with you”. WWYD: You’re a new captain, senior FO keeps doing your flows “to help get out on time”. They kept pushing follow up questions and ended with, “why do you think there are two pilots up front?” I think they eventually were happy when I mentioned there are two pilots with distinct designated duties because it is the safest way to operate- the key buzzword being “safe”. WWYD: Captain doesn’t want to fly around a line of weather 150 miles off the nose, you don’t think you’ll top the storms. It was apparent they wanted me to talk about all the different resources I have available, including tops reports via other aircraft/ATC. They continued the scenario until I mentioned my big picture thoughts: I am concerned primarily for the safety of myself, my captain, and all the people behind us (“safety” key buzzword again), and secondarily the reputation of the Delta brand. It didn’t feel like it lasted as long as it did- I was in there a bit over an hour. The stress level wasn’t as high as I’d expected; I think I was able to help control the atmosphere by simply being nice, making good eye contact, and not allowing myself to be flustered. (P.S.- I drank lots of the provided water!) The psyc evaluation interview the next day was not stressful at all. Just a conversation: “Tell me about yourself including your childhood.” “What’s the worst mistake you’ve ever seen any pilot make?” “What’s your leadership style like?” It was very short, maybe 15 minutes.
Cog Test	Much easier than jet brain games. Make sure you’ve watched the video RST has explaining the differences between jet brain games and the test- ESPECIALLY the “Emergency Aircraft” section (not really an airplane- it’s a flagman- just watch the video)- go through all the games a time or two, and you’ll be more than prepared.
How long prior to the interview did you prepare for the HR portion of the interview?	5 weeks.
Which HR Prep service did you use and did it help?	I used Emerald Coast Interview Consulting. Much of the info in their audio and video course should be common sense, but I was definitely helped by practicing my intro, thinking of how my stories (some of which I’d forgotten) could be used to answer different questions, and hearing hypothetical situation questions being posed during webinars. I think the biggest help was quite simply being exposed to the pressure. If I hadn’t been expecting some push back from the interviewers I could have been taken aback. Just be you. They really want to hire you!
Any additional information you would like to add.	The briefing given by Captain Holmes at the beginning of the day helped a lot to set the tone. They want you to be as relaxed as possible- they know how it is. They know what all is on the internet and what kind of resources are available and want us to use them (RST and Emerald Coast were both specifically mentioned by name), all the junk about “drink the water/don’t drink the water” and what color tie/suit to wear, etc. is bunk- “We’d be a pretty superficial company if we based our hiring decisions on that sort of thing. Maybe this’ll get out into the gouge one day hint…” The main thing was, “We want to hire all of you- you’ve all worked very hard to get here and you’re all very accomplished.” He made me feel good about being there.
Is there anything you wish you could have done different to prepare you for this process?

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